More progressive voices set to be heard in Holyrood
AT election counts, the result is typically known long before the official announcement. At the Highland Hall in Ingliston – the site of the Edinburgh count for the Holyrood election – the first result became apparent around noon.
There were beaming faces from the Scottish Greens. Two staffers couldn’t hide their joy not long after, walking past me with wide grins as one asked: “Where is Angus?”
They were referring to the SNP’s Angus Robertson, who did turn up for the official declaration, when it was announced that he had been ousted in Edinburgh Central – coming in third behind Labour as it was won by the Greens’ Lorna Slater.
He denied it had anything to do with his much-criticised 2024 meeting with the Israeli deputy ambassador and paid tribute to the Scottish Greens on their historic first Holyrood constituency victory.
Slater said it was a “big step” for the Scottish Greens and paid credit to the party’s activists – who were quite literally jumping with joy. She added: “Today is a fantastic day.”
The LibDems and their councillor and candidate Sanne DijkstraDownie won the Edinburgh Northern seat, which was thought would be a tight race with the SNP but ended up fairly comfortable.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, too, won his Edinburgh North Western seat – a comfortable hold with 22,959 votes to SNP candidate Lyn Jardine’s 9943.
With some other modest gains, Cole-Hamilton will be a more influential presence in Holyrood than before. While he ruled out any coalition deal with the SNP, he did tell me his party would “work constructively on the issues that matter to us”.
For Scottish Labour in Edinburgh, it wasn’t a total disaster. Their candidate in Edinburgh Southern Daniel Johnson increased his majority for a comfortable win over the SNP’s Deidre Brock.
Joy for him but concern for his party. His leader Anas Sarwar is facing calls to resign after what looks to be a very poor result for Scottish Labour Scotland-wide.
The National also asked Johnson about whether this should happen. “That’s still a hypothetical question, you know. I think I’d much rather respond to that once we actually know the results but we will need to deal with the political reality,” he told me.
Simita Kumar, the SNP’s candidate who already leads the party’s group on Edinburgh Council, won the Edinburgh South Western seat with 11,727 votes.
“I’m so proud,” one of her sisters told me as journalists waited their turn to interview the now-MSP.
Asked what she will bring to Holyrood, Kumar told me: “One of the things I’m very keen for is that we have more women representatives in the parliament, that we have people from all different backgrounds. I come from a very working class background and in terms of bringing that experience to the fore, it’s really important for me. But as an immigrant, as well, to have all of these experiences behind me, combined with my professional experience.”
It was a win too for the SNP in Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith. The party’s candidate and education minister Ben MacPherson will remain in post.
But the losses here in Edinburgh no doubt contributed strongly to the SNP not securing a majority.
That being said, we are looking at a stonking pro-independence majority with a hugely strong performance from the Greens. In Edinburgh particularly, with the party winning a further 3 MSPs on the list – Kate Nevens, Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill and Q Manivannan – who will be the first-ever transgender MSP.
“I am a transgender Tamil immigrant. My pronouns are they/ them. To some in this country, I am everything that the hateful despise and I’m standing here as your MSP with care,” they said to huge cheers from party activists in the evening.
The rest of the spoils went to Reform UK, the Scottish Tories and Scottish Labour (two MSPs).
The full implications of this result in Edinburgh remains to be seen. But Holyrood will certainly have more progressive voices.